 |
Mid-Winter Thaw in New England | |
| Anytime after New Year's Day until mid-February, New England may experience a mid-winter thaw with warm days and chill nights. | ||
|
|
|
Sometimes called a "January thaw", it brings a respite from the often-intense freezing cold, a gift from New England's quirky climate to the snow-clad landscape. During a mid-winter thaw, temperatures may rise into the 60°s F (15° C), or even the low 70°s F (20° C) in southern New England for a few days, melting snow and ice, bringing people out of doors to sit in the sun, and generally lightening the load of cold in a winter of New England's climate. But there is no guarantee that any particular winter will have a mid-winter thaw. It may or may not happen—which is what makes it such a precious interlude when it does. After the thaw, New Englanders go back to winter, the coldest of it, with frozen lakes and ponds—and, in a particularly cold winter, frozen rivers—but also abundant snow on the ski slopes of the northern states (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine). If the snow is a nuisance in the cities and a burden to workers in country towns, it is also beautiful, dramatic, and just the thing for outdoor winter sports: downhill skiing, cross-country (Nordic) skiing, snowboarding, snow-shoeing, snow-tubing and air-boarding. Even if your favorite part of winter is sitting in a pleasant country inn, next to a crackling wood fire, sipping a cup of hot chocolate, you'll still recall with pleasure the warm respite of a New England mid-winter thaw.
|
|
Mid-winter thaw can
lighten up the
|
